not the cause of evil, at the same time-the cause in idea, but in words not the cause; they also, in like manner, make man to be the cause, and not the cause of his own fall. That men of mature years, and, in many respects, of learning, talent, and sound judgment, can be deluded by such shuffling contradictions, (to say nothing of their libelous nature against God,) is a clear evidence of the power of early imbibed prejudices, and the habit of a peculiar mode of reasoning, in warping the human understanding. If the same parties were told that a father, while assisting his helpless infant in learning to walk across the floor, suddenly let go his hold, and the child therefore fell and was seriously injured, would they then exclaim, "It is no fault of the father's, the child could have stood if he would, therefore none but himself is to be blamed for the injury." Another error of Calvinism, in connexion with those already noticed, and which appears to increase the difficulty, with them, of perceiving the origin of evil in any other way than as stated by their leader, is the supposition that the creation of man was not so perfect a creation as it might have been-that God, if he would, could have made him more perfectly-could have made him "so as to be altogether incapable either of choosing or of committing any sin," and "that such a nature would have been more excellent." Here is another blow at the Infinite goodness of God; yet so artfully is it connected with excuses for His work not being done in the best manner, that to the unenlightened mind, and to those who are under the influence of Calvinism, it will probably appear either perfectly true or exceedingly plausible; but to the members of the New Church it will appear as complete a piece of arrogance and ignorance as ever escaped the mouth of the serpent of the tree of knowledge. It assumes that the good-will of God was not equal to His power-that He could have done better if He would, consequently that, in this work, He was not Infinitely good; and that the Infinite Mind of the worker, made the nature of man so very imperfectly, that the finite mind of Calvin could point out a nature that would "have been more excellent!" This fatal error, once imbibed, becomes an easy stepping-stone to all the fallacies of Calvinistic predestination, and appears to have been intended as such by Calvin himself; and any one who has been influenced by it must cast it out, root and branch, before he can clearly discern the true nature of the origin of evil.

of

We have seldom seen, in the same compass, such a mass of subtlety and absurdity as we find, on this subject, in two or three pages Calvin's "Institutes." Let the following serve as a sample. Speaking of Adam's integrity, &c., he says, "In this integrity man was endued

with free-will, by which, if he had chosen, he might have obtained eternal life. Here it would be unreasonable to introduce the question respecting the secret predestination (!) of God, because we are not discussing what might possibly have happened or not, but what was the real nature of man. Adam therefore could have stood if he would, since he fell merely by his own will; but because his will was flexible to either side, and he was not endued with constancy to persevere, therefore he so easily fell. Yet his choice of good and evil was free; and not only so, but his mind and will were possessed of consummate rectitude, and all his organic parts were rightly disposed to obedience, till destroying himself he corrupted all his excellencies. All the parts of his soul were formed with the utmost rectitude; he enjoyed soundness of mind, and a will free to the choice of good. If any object, that he was placed in a dangerous situation on account of the imbecility of this faculty, I reply, that the station in which he was placed was sufficient to deprive him of all excuse. For it would have been unreasonable that God should be confined to this condition, to make man so as to be incapable either of choosing or of committing any sin. It is true that such a nature would have been more excellent, but to expostulate with God, as though he had been under any obligation to bestow this upon man, were unreasonable and unjust in the extreme, since it was at his choice to bestow as little as he pleased. But why he did not sustain him with the power of perseverence, remains concealed in his mind. He (Adam) had received the power, if he chose to exert it; but he had not the will to use the power: for the consequence of this will would have been perseverance. Yet there is no excuse for him; he received so much, that he was the voluntary procurer of his own destruction; but God was under no necessity to give him any other than an indifferent and mutable will, that from his fall he might educe matter for his own glory." (Chap. xv. pp. 208—9.)

What awful ignorance of both God and man is here presented, and what a pernicious tendency do these sentiments exhibit? When any one can freely swallow all this subtle poison, it is no wonder if his will should become dead to all right feeling as to the Infinite goodness of God, and his understanding stultified as to the perception of spiritual truth; and therefore, so long as any of this poison remains in the system, there will be difficulty in perceiving the real nature of free-will and the origin of evil.

The chief difficulty is to be removed by learning and perceiving, as taught in the doctrines of the New Church, and as the preceding remarks are intended to shew, that the creation of man was the most

perfect that could be effected even by Infinite Love, Wisdom, and Power, the nature of the Divine love being such that it could not possibly be otherwise. Suppose, with Calvin, that man had been made altogether incapable of choosing or of committing sin," what would he then have been? either a God or a mere animal, and not a man at all. As he was created we behold in his nature the summit of finite perfection, between which and the Infinite, there is no intermediate nature, consequently, to create a nature "more excellent" than that of the highest finite perfection, is to create a God, the idea of which is not less absurd than the doing it is impossible. This is, indeed, much like the idea insinuated by the serpent at the fall. Again, between the most perfect animal instinct and the more perfect nature of man, there is no intermediate, therefore to have created man with a nature “incapable of choosing or committing sin," would have been to make him a mere animal, for an animal can neither choose nor commit sin. But such a nature, instead of being "more excellent," would have been far less so, a nature devoid of reason, and without any rational or spiritual individuality whatever.

Minor difficulties are to be removed by an acquaintance with the Spiritual Sense of the Word. By this means, for instance, the idea and difficulty arising from the supposed suddenness and greatness of the fall, by a single act, would be corrected; for the spiritual sense of the early chapters of Genesis, as well as of other places, shews that man, after being created, was progressively elevated from a sensual and natural state, to a rational and spiritual, and finally to a celestial state. The same sense likewise gives indications of a decline from that elevated state, prior to any mention of the Serpent, and leads to the satisfactory conclusion, that the facts so briefly related in those chapters, including the fall and expulsion from the garden, involve a progressive decline. The mind is thus enabled to perceive, that the first change or decline from that pure state was by no means so great, nor the degradation of man to the depths of sin and misery so sudden, as they are commonly supposed to have been. The subject is thus brought to harmonize with present knowledge and experience, according to which, it is well known that all the progressions and retrogressions of man, and the operations of Divine Providence with him, are by slow and almost imperceptible degrees; so that man, at any time, knows but very little of the precise particulars of what is passing in his own mind. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." (John iii. 8.) It is true that we can now see, by the

great contrast between our hereditary evils and revealed truth, the vast difference between order and disorder; but nothing like such a guiding and striking contrast as this could exist before the fall, that is, before actual disorder existed.

H.

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our sons will not be as

Letters to a Son from a Protestant Mother, on the Errors of the Romish Faith. pp. 192. Newbery, 6, King-street, Holborn. THESE letters have evidently emanated from the pen of a mother truly anxious for the spiritual and eternal interests of her son. Would to heaven that all mothers were actuated by a similar anxiety! They would then become true types of the Heavenly Jerusalem, or the Lord's true Church, "which is the MOTHER of us all." (Gal. iv. 26.) And until mothers in general are influenced by a similar spirit, the rising generations can not be expected to put forth those spiritual buds and blossoms, which would eventually ripen into fruits of righteousness-of love to God and to man. The mother is the first medium through whom the Lord lays the first plane, upon which the celestial and spiritual things of His kingdom can be established. It is she who should supply the "sincere milk of the Word," (1 Pet. ii. 2.) that children may spiritually "grow thereby," and as they increase in stature, "increase also in favor with God and man." Until our mothers become more active and alive to this important duty, plants grown up in their youth, nor our daughters as corner stones polished after the similitude of a palace," (Ps. cxliv. 12.)-divine words which imply the heavenly growth of all Christian virtues and graces in the minds and lives of our children. If the mother, as the first medium in the Lord's hands, of cultivating spiritual life in the tender minds of children, be defective in her duties, the first link in the golden chain of love, by which we are conjoined to our Heavenly Father, is broken, and the labors of the schoolmaster and of the minister in after life are comparatively ineffective and fruitless. This golden link is preserved entire, if the mother, in the performance of her duties, thinks of the Lord's kingdom in the first place, and remembers that the great end for which the child has come into existence, is that he may become an inhabitant of that kingdom for ever. This must be the prompting, guiding end in in the education and training of children. By acting constantly with this end in view, the parents not only train their children to become citizens of the Lord's kingdom in heaven, but they also prepare them to N.S. NO. 54.-VOL. v.

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become excellent citizens of the state, and guide them in the way of attaining the most solid and honorable prosperity that this world can bestow. The parent, habitually and constantly actuated by this end in the management and training of his children, is rendering his own states more spiritual and heavenly from day to day, and securing a more magnificent citizenship in the Lord's kingdom after death. We learn from the writings of the New Church, that the most eminent uses that can be performed are those which parents perform in the education and training of their children for heaven.*

The Letters before us are addressed with the utmost solicitude by a mother to her son, guarding and warning him against the numerous and deadly errors of the Church of Rome. It appears from the introductory remarks, that the father was a Roman Catholic, and the mother a Protestant, and knowing that attempts would be made to train up her son in the Romish persuasion, these Letters were written as a counteractive to prevent the youth from imbibing religious sentiments, deemed by the mother so unscriptural and pernicious. And here we cannot but remark, that if prudence and wisdom are at any time requisite in our conduct, they should certainly be conspicuous at the period of marriage. "Be not unequally yoked," says the apostle, in relation to marriage; for how is it possible that any conjugal union can exist, where the religious views of the parties are adverse and opposed to each other? The very elements of the marriage union are wanting, where this is the case. And as conjugial love is the very nursery of all religion, as it is the birthplace of all pure disinterested love, friendship, and confidence, it is scarcely to be expected that children can be properly and religiously trained, where this all-important principle is lacking.

We consider these Letters highly useful to place in the hands of such as may be in danger of imbibing the pernicious errors here exposed and confuted. It is abundantly evident that the fair author has been long acquainted with the doctrines and writings of the New Church. We could, however, have wished that the sources had been pointed out, whence the light, arising from a superior interpretation of Scripture, has emanated; the armoury whence the mighty weapons of truth have been drawn, by which error has been so successfully combated, should,

• We wish most especially to recommend to the reader's attention, the little work called the "Parent's Friend, or Essays on Domestic Education," by one of the Ministers of the New Church. In this work every necessary guide and help is afforded to enable parents, and especially mothers, to proceed in the most efficient manner in the training of their children. This useful little work should be in the hands of every parent.-ED.